CLIMATE AND CHANGES. 



Ixxix 



absolute blank in their records as regards such natural phenomena 

 as are connected with the movements of birds. They have not taken 

 up the lead given by the British Association, nor the example given 

 by other countries, nor has any attempt been made on any syste- 

 matised plan to follow the labours of individuals. 



I do not ask my readers to accept these remarks as efficient 

 in solving problems of migration ; I only try to suggest means — 

 amongst others — to that end. Therefore I say : Suppose that there 

 be any truth in my remarks, and if it is right to say that tempera- 

 ture and other attendant phenomena influence life whether vegetable 

 or animal, at the time of the productive seasons, is it absurd to 

 take into any consideration the further possibility that the same life 

 is also affected at all other seasons ? True, all the details necessary 

 are not to hand to do so, and may not be so till Doomsday ; but it 

 is not quite truly philosophical to fold our hands and even dis- 

 courage attempts to pierce the veil, nor to remain tied to old 

 prejudice and dry- and wet-hidhology. 



I adhere to the belief — I think, expressed before — that migra- 

 tion, dispersal, and consequent distribution of species, are closely 

 connected with one another as depending upon meteorological phe- 

 nomena affecting the food, health, and general life of animals, and 

 especially pointing to our birds at the present time as an example of 

 its working. 



I do not intend here to enlarge upon climate and changes as 

 affecting the present area under discussion, but only desire to draw 

 attention to the fact that there are many reflections among our old 

 references regarding a changed condition of things in climate and 

 weather, scattered up and down, for instance, in the long series of 

 the " Agricultural Surveys " of the different counties, which deserve 

 at least attention, though the meteorological societies were not then 

 in existence. Both the old Statistical Account and the Neiu 

 Statistical Account deserve some consideration — much more, I lancy, 

 than has been accorded to these old local records by writers of the 

 present time. There are other sources too from which items might 

 be culled, with direct advantage to the historical aspects of our 

 climate and times. Let me also say that I believe most may be 

 learned by observation in abnormal seasons, when such are carefully 

 compared with the greater majority which present only normal con- 



